


Mind the Inkpot

by FleetofShippyShips



Series: HP Femslash Ficlets and Drabbles [14]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: F/F, Flirting, Flirting in Class, Teasing
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-01
Updated: 2017-09-01
Packaged: 2018-12-22 12:08:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,351
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11967063
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FleetofShippyShips/pseuds/FleetofShippyShips
Summary: Pansy is forced to switch seats with Lavender for being disruptive in class, but sitting next to Parvati is just what she wants.





	Mind the Inkpot

“Miss Parkinson, since you clearly can’t stay on task where you are seated, you can move!”

Pansy groaned, and Draco snickered beside her, somehow avoiding the blame for a conversation he’d started, and perpetuated.

“Five points from Slytherin, and you can change seats with Miss Brown.”

A groan game from the other side of classroom, and Pansy looked over to see Lavender drop her head onto the desk for a moment. Beside her, Parvati gave her back a consoling pat, before looking up, and raising an eyebrow at Pansy.

“ _Now_ , ladies!” McGonagall said sternly.

“Don’t let the silly kittens get you down,” Draco muttered quietly, as Pansy gathered her things.

“Don’t let McGonagall hear you say that,” she murmured back, before leaving her desk.

Lavender shot her a nasty glare, as they passed each other, and Pansy sneered back. When she reached Lavender’s desk, Parvati was resting her chin on one hand, propped up by her elbow. She looked up at her with a raised eyebrow.

“Parkinson.”

“Patil,” Pansy responded, settling in beside her, and pointedly ignoring all the Gryffindors on this side of the room.

McGonagall gave her a stern look, and then returned to the lesson. Pansy looked down at Lavender’s beetle. It looks less lively than hers had been, she should have brought her own over.

“Couldn’t you just keep your mouth shut for one lesson and not disrupt everything?” Parvati murmured under her breath. “Lavender and I were in the middle of an important conversation. A quiet one. Because we’re not idiots.”

Pansy mimicked her posture, propping her chin up on one hand, and raising an eyebrow.

“All part of my master plan,” she said, smiling slowly.

Parvati scowled at her, and turned to face the front properly. “Shut up. You did not plan that.”

She seemed to have perfected the art of talking without McGonagall noticing. Pansy waited until McGonagall paced to the other end of the front of the room, before replying, as quietly as she could.

“How do you know that?”

“Because you can’t have predicted who she’d swap you with,” Parvati whispered, while scribbling down a few notes. “Stop trying to be cool. You’re an idiot.”

Pansy wrinkled her nose, and let her hand fall heavily onto the desk. Parvati jumped in her chair, and McGonagall turned to look at them.

“Sorry, Professor,” Pansy said coolly, picking up her quill. “My hand slipped.”

“Do try to gain better control of your limbs, Miss Parkinson,” McGonagall said tiredly, before returning to the lesson.

Pansy looked across the room, and saw that Draco was sniggering at her, next to an uncomfortable looking Lavender. Gritting her teeth, she turned her attention back to Parvati.

“Any disruption is met with being moved to the other side of the room,” she said quietly. “Which suits my plans perfectly.”

Parvati ignored her, scribbling down a few more notes. Pansy watched her for a moment, before tapping the desk a few times in irritation.

“Don’t pretend you’re not curious.”

“What you want is the last thing I care about, Parkinson,” Parvati said, louder than before.

A few heads turned, and a few smirks were levelled at Pansy. McGonagall said nothing, but shot them both a stern look, before demonstrating the spell they were supposed to be learning. Pansy didn’t even remember what it was.

“Oh, don’t waste energy protesting,” Pansy said, relieved that McGonagall was setting them to practise now, and talking was more tolerated. “Just ask.”

Parvati made an exasperated sound. “I hope for Lavender’s sake that Malfoy isn’t as irritating as you are.”

Pansy grit her teeth, and propped her head on her hand again, turning her body towards Parvati, and waiting.

Looking at her once, and then back to her beetle, quill scratching out a few notes, and then again to see she was still watching, Parvati groaned, and made a sharp gesture.

“Go on then, if it’ll shut you up,” she said shortly. “What’s your big plan?”

Pansy smiled slowly, catching Parvati’s gaze, and holding it. “The view is so much nicer on this side of the classroom.”

Parvati’s expression faltered, and she misjudged the distance and almost stabbed her beetle with her quill, instead of dipping it into the ink pot.

“Shut up!” she hissed, looking around. “Harass someone else.”

Pansy only smiled wider. It was hard to see, but there was a slight change in colour to her cheeks, and the corners of her lips were twitching.

“You’re looking lovely today, Parvati,” she continued, lower, so no one would hear.

Parvati shot her a glare that was ruined by her shifting expressions, the failed attempt at hiding how much it pleased her. Pansy so loved to test her ability to act like she didn’t like the compliments.

“You’re looking for trouble!”

Glancing around to see McGonagall was occupied helping Theo, Pansy leaned a little closer.

“I wish you had taken a seat at the back today, so I could hold your hand under the desk, and make you smile that secret smile of yours,” she said softly, aching to reach out and feel the heat of Parvati’s cheeks.

“Dammit, Pansy,” Parvati muttered. “We’re in class! And I don’t have a ‘secret smile’. That’s pathetic. get some new lines.”

“You do,” she teased. “The one that always has Padma asking who you’re dating, even though you keep denying that you’re seeing anyone.”

“Shut up!”

“I think you should give up on re-inking your quill, darling, before you kill your beetle with it,” Pansy said, drinking in how flustered Parvati was getting.

Parvati looked to where her beetle was scurrying around the magical containment area on her desk, avoiding her aimlessly stabbing quill. She growled, and tossed her quill down, shooting Pansy another glare.

“You planned this!”

“I thought you said I was an idiot? That I couldn't have known who she’d switch me with?” she teased, delighting by the growing annoyance in Parvati’s expression.

“You just couldn’t wait until after dinner,” Parvati muttered, folding her arms, and leaning back in her seat. “You’re making me look like an idiot.”

That was too good to pass up. “Any chance to be close to you,” Pansy said, matching her posture, until their arms were pressed together. “And you look gorgeous when you’re annoyed. The way you wrinkle your nose, and the way your eyes light up. You can’t blame me, I just can’t help myself.”

Parvati groaned again. “Stop trying to be poetic. It doesn’t suit you.” She was still blushing. “Do your work.”

Pansy chuckled, and looked around the room. No doubt it looked like she was tormenting her, and was smug about it. That was what everyone expected to see. And it was so fun. Except...except she really had been glad to swap places with Lavender, and sit next to her. But she wasn’t able to fully enjoy it.

She looked down at where their arms were pressed together, and where Parvati’s hand was resting on her own thigh under the table. So damn close, and too damn far. She just wanted to reach out and link their hands together.

Her amusement faded. How much longer was this going to go on?

Looking back up, she checked that McGonagall was still occupied.

“You know, I really do want to hold your hand,” she murmured.

Parvati groaned. “Quit trying to be a smooth talker, it’s embarrassing.”

Tensing, Pansy couldn’t stop herself from rising to the bait.

“Is snogging in alcoves and the back shelves of the library all that I’m worth then?”

The clattering sound of Parvati’s inkpot hitting the floor drew everyone’s attention. McGonagall sighed, and shook her head.

“Do I have to move you again, Miss Parkinson? Or would you rather I take points?”

Pansy bristled, and straightened her back.

“Sorry, Professor,” Parvati said quickly, getting up to retrieve her inkpot. “That was my fault. I wasn’t watching what I was doing.”

McGonagall looked between them sternly, and then went back to helping Theo. He always was terrible at Transfigurations, but an excellent distraction. Pansy looked back to find Parvati crouched over her inkpot, unmoving.

Pansy was happy for her to stay there, if it delayed any form of rejection. Pansy looked down, and found her hands were shaking. Clenching them, she scanned the blackboard, trying to figure out what spell they were learning so she could distract herself. She’d put all her cards on the table now, completely without planning or forethought, and with terrible timing.

She was a disgrace to her own house.

After a few moments, Parvati took her seat again, and Pansy was writing notes without comprehending any of the words.

“That’s not funny,” Parvati muttered, picking up her wand, pointing it at her beetle, but not casting. “That’s really not funny.”

Pansy clenched her quill so tightly it creaked. Disgracing her house again. She had lost her composure. Merlin, her eyes were starting to prickle.

“Do you hear me laughing?” she hissed.

There was no response to that, and Pansy tossed her quill down, and folded her arms on the desk. She couldn’t concentrate now, and she really wished she was sitting somewhere else.

Ruining everything in a fit of emotion? Who was she? Draco?

Turning, she glared across the room at him. It was all his fault for dragging her into that stupid conversation, and making her laugh so loudly.

“Pansy?”

Pansy ignored her in favour of glaring at Draco and Lavender.

“Oh, for Merlin’s sake!” Parvati hissed. “Give me your damn hand!”

“What— Hey!” Pansy gasped, as Parvati, grabbed her right arm, and yanked until her arms were no longer crossed.

In full view of everyone, and the people who had actually turned their heads at Pansy’s exclamation, Parvati linked their fingers, and lay their joined hands down on the desk.

Pansy felt like she’d stuck her head in an oven. Her cheeks were burning, but she found herself unable to do anything other than stare at their hands.

“Honestly,” Parvati said, her voice a bit thick. “You always say everything like it’s a damned pick up line, or some kind of stupid joke. I never know if you’re being serious! When you want something, ask for it more plainly!”

That jolted Pansy from her frozen state.

“Who do you think you’ve been dating this whole time!” she hissed back, feeling entirely too exposed. “I’m a Slytherin! We’re never direct. Read between the lines, you silly twat!”

“Oh, I’m the silly twat?” Parvati snapped back, her cheeks definitely a shade darker. “I’m a Gryffindor! We prefer things to be out in the open, blunt. I’ve been clear about what I want! How could you not know?”

Seeing how affected Parvati also was, and feeling how tightly she was gripping her hand, Pansy felt herself calming down.

A stupid misunderstanding. In the middle of class.

She quickly looked over to McGonagall. She was standing with her back to them, but everyone, even Theo, had turned to look at them. Gritting her teeth, realising she was making an idiot of herself, she turned back to Parvati.

“Well, since you have my casting hand well occupied, you can transfigure my beetle after yours,” she said lightly, giving Parvati’s hand a squeeze. “Get casting.”

Parvati rolled her eyes, but turned her attention to her beetle. One by one, everyone looked back to their own work, Draco last, and with gleeful expression that told Pansy she wouldn’t hear the end of this for a while.

McGonagall didn’t say anything to them, or even look at them, as Theo turned back to his beetle, and she continued to demonstrate the wand movement to him. It only made Pansy feel more awkward. How ridiculous of them, to air their private business like that in class.

And it was her fault for getting so emotional.

Parvati successfully transfigured her beetle, and Pansy realised that they were transfiguring the beetles into miniatures of other animals. She looked down at the miniscule snake slithering within the confines of the magical containment area. It was so tiny, it would probably only wrap once around her little finger.

Parvati turned to Pansy’s beetle, and Pansy swallowed her pride.

“Sorry,” she muttered, giving Parvati’s hand another little squeeze.

Parvati squeezed back.

“I didn’t realise the secrecy bugged you so much,” Parvati murmured, meeting her gaze with a serious expression. “You should have said something sooner.”

Pansy looked away. “I didn’t realise it did bother me so much until just now.”

“I was enjoying having a secret from my sister so much, and teasing her with it, that I let it distract me. And it’s not like our after-dinner time isn’t enjoyable,” Parvati said, lowering her voice, until Pansy could hardly hear it. “But you’re worth a lot more than dark alcoves and back shelves, Pansy. I thought you knew that.”

“Well, everyone knows it now,” Pansy muttered, glancing around again.

There were few furtive glances at their linked hands, but everyone seemed to be working on their beetles again. Her face was still hot with embarrassment, and her stomach was twisting.

Unacceptable.

She propped up her face on her free hand, and forced a smile onto her face. Time to turn the situation around.

“I suppose I can say it all I like now, whenever I like now,” she said. “Your hair looks especially pretty today, Parvati. I love when you wear it like that.”

Parvati scowled at her. “Don’t.”

That only made Pansy smile more. That was more like it. Flirting and making Parvati make that face was always enjoyable. The one where she was secretly pleased and trying to hide it, because she always acted like she was above flirting and lines.

“Can I walk you to dinner, darling? The lighting in the corridors makes your skin glow. It’s like walking next to a goddess.”

Parvati groaned. “You’re not smooth, you sound ridiculous.”

Pansy smirked. Too easy. “Your skin’s so smooth, it’s like touching silk.”

Letting her hand go with an irritated sound, Parvati grabbed Pansy’s wand, and shoved it at her.

“Transfigure your own damn beetle!”


End file.
